While reading the book This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin, I became interested in the effect music has on us. While Levintin writes mostly about the neurological aspects of music, I was more intersted in the impact music has on the rest of our bodies. When I began researching, I had no idea how much research on this topic was already done. There was a whole field of science dedicated to this subject alone. I actually didn't expect music to have very much effect on our bodies but I was surprised by the physical power of music.
Genre 1Introduction
The first genre was a research paper. This genre features several important characteristics;
Formal language; for example, almost never uses first-person point of view
Intended for a scholarly audience.
Supposed to reflect the best objective knowledge of the subject available.
Should have a thesis that unifies the material.
I learned the most from working on this genre. Reading research papers would actually be the best way for an interested person to get information on the physical effects of music. The genre enabled me to present most of my research on this topic.
Research Paper
Music. It is a vague term for almost anything that we could hear with our auditory system. Our lives are so heavily integrated with music that it would be even wrong to say that a big part of our lives consists of music. We are exposed to music even before birth and continue our lives with music until death. Our life is music.
There are a lot of different types of research going on: how different types of music cause different reactions, region of the brain that functions in music recognition and reaction, hormones that are produced as a result of musical interaction, effect of music in the mental state, so on so forth. From all this research, one thing is certain: that music has clear influence physical reactions in the body. But is it good or bad for the body? The answer is that there are both good and harmful effects of body-music interaction.
It has been found that certain types of music (especially baroque-classic) is capable of calming blood pulse, brain waves, breathing rate, and lowering blood pressure (Storr). In addition, music is capable of increasing memory retainment and the electrical resistance of our skin (Storr). This results from a lower/higher release in certain types of stress hormones. One reason they turn on music in hospitals is to take advantage of this phenomenon to calm their clients. It is even used to treat patients in major hospitals to reduce the doses of medicine that lower blood pressure. Other practical usages of music include its usage in treating multiple disorders like the Alzheimer’s disease. Music had a visible impact on patients by calming the severity of the disease in patients. Musical treatment and memory enhancement has a great potential of becoming even more widely used within the near future for its presumably innocuous nature and its non-reliance on physically impacting chemicals and medicines (Harvard Gazette).
Although most researches focus about the “beneficial” effects of music, there are some scientists that state that certain types of music is capable of harming the body. According to one research, stopped anapestic beats, which are often used in hard rock, is capable of weakening the body and mind. The body’s muscles are said to deteriorate after a long exposure to these special types of beats. Behavioral problems amongst teens are also credited to the hard rock beats (Storr). While this research doesn't seem as well supported as previous ones on the beneficial effects, it is clear to us that it is necessary for scientists to start researching for the negative effects of music as well.
Like mentioned above, music is said to be able to influence people in their development. There has been researches that stated that children develop quicker and mature at an early age by interacting with certain types of music. To support this statement, there are mothers that listen to classical music during their pregnancy in hopes of developing their children while they are in the stomach. Details concerning why this may be so is unknown yet, but we are getting clearer to an answer as more and more researches prove this relationship to be true (The Neurosciences Institute). The developmental aspect of music is hard to experiment with, considering the fact that development occurs during a longer period of time compared to most of the other experiments. But these few experiments that try to show us that there is a relationship is definitely a good sign of progress.
After considering the effect of “listening” to music, we cannot ignore the effect music has on the musicians. In an experiment conducted with children, given piano lessons, computer lessons, and singing lessons, the researchers found surprisingly that none of the other lessons than piano lessons actually improved a child’s spatial-temporal test scores. By developing body-brain interaction, and by developing a keener sense of sound, musicians develop certain parts of their brain. This, although not confirmed through multiple researches, is regarded amongst many researchers to be true. Therefore, playing music, even has a part in the music to body influcence (The Musical Brain).
Despite the degree of importance music has on our lives, intense research on the effects of the different types of music on our body have started fairly recently (People had interests in this relationship since the time of Plato though). But this doesn't mean that there is no progress; we have found out a great deal of new facts about the body-music interactions and are finding out new things about it even now. Music will prove to be a practical topic to research in the long run.
Bibliography
Levitin, Daniel J.. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York: Plume, 2007.
"Music and the Brain." The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla CA.. 17 Sep. 2009
The Musical Brain. "Neuroscience for Kids." UW Faculty Web Server. 17 Sep. 2009"
Music on Brain." Harvard Gazette. 30 Aug. 2009.
Storr. "Music and the Brain." "Brain & Mind" Magazine. 3 Sep. 2009.
Genre 2Introduction
The second genre was an article. The genre features;
Shorter than research paper;
Most paragraphs consist of a single sentence
Less formal language, but not concise.
Targets a large audience; many people should be able to understand it without much effort
Although I couldn't present the research as deeply as I did with genre one, someone could still learn a lot about this topic through this genre in a shorter amount of time.
Korea International School Daily (October 1, 2009) - Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine have recently discovered that playing certain kinds of music is capable of accelerating the course of the memory-destroying disease dementia.
In the study, 101 individuals at high risk of developing dementia were told to play music and solve 3-dimensional puzzles. Dementia was shown to develop later in the individuals who did these brain stimulating activities than in those who didn’t exercise their brains as much.
However, individuals whose dementia was delayed were seen to deteriorate much more rapidly than individuals who didn’t exercise their brains as much and whose symptoms appeared earlier.
In a particularly interesting recent case, a minster has been observed suffering seizures focused on his lower left face, but only when he played music on an organ.
His seizures were seen to respond less vigorously when listening to, reading, or even silently imagining playing or singing.
A Specific Genre of Music?
The detrimental effects of certain music have long been known to researchers.
Stopped anapestic beats (short-short-long beats followed by a pause) are said to interfere with brain wave patterns causing mental stress.
Stopped anapestic beats feature prominently in rock and hip-hop music. Anyone who can remember the guitar part of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” is familiar with this pattern.
While classical music might benefit the body by corresponding to the body’s natural rhythm, it is said that music containing these stopped anapestic beats, is capable of making the body weaker by creating rhythms that are directly opposite to cardiac and arterial rhythms.
Combining the cases with the already known research results about the stopped anapestic beats, music may not be the innocuous, therapeutic pleasure we have thought it to be previously.
Maybe our parents and grandparents were right to warn about the dangers of rock music.
Maybe It Depends on Taste
A related study reported in the March edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved stroke patients who suffered from impaired vision.
These patients suffered from visual neglect, a condition in which they are incapable of recognizing objects within the part of their field of vision that is affected by the damaged area of their brain.
The study, conducted at Imperial College London, the University of Birmingham and other institutions, showed these patients to have a much higher rate of visual recognition while listening to music of their preference.
On the other hand, music that they did not enjoy had no more effect than silence with these patients.
Researchers presume that the positive emotion resulting from the pleasant music is capable of making more efficient signaling of the brain.
The study suggests that musical preference may be essential in many of the beneficial affects attributed to music, adding a new dimension for future researchers to consider.
“Our findings suggest that we should think more carefully about the individual emotional factors in patients,” said Dr. Soto, the lead author of the study.
So perhaps rock and hip hop are only bad for our parents and grandparents because they don’t like it? As always, scientists only agree that more research is needed.
Bibliography
"Einstein: Albert Einstein College of Medicine." Einstein: Albert Einstein College of Medicine. 24 Oct. 2009
"Listening To Pleasant Music Could Help Restore Vision In Stroke Patients, Suggests Study." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 24 Oct. 2009.
"Music And Health: Is There A Connection? « Health In Motion." Health In Motion. 24 Oct. 2009
Storr. "Music and the Brain." "Brain & Mind" Magazine - WWW Home Page. 24 Oct. 2009. Music Technology. Photograph. Music Technology. Web. 25 Oct. 2009. <http://academic.sun.ac.za/musteg/images/mixer_en_cans.jpg>.
Genre 3Introduction
The first two genres presented the topic as if the author was uninterested in the audience. But this time, the creator of the webpage attempts to sell products/services to the audience.
Clear, attractive writing
Must hold attention of audience
Everything must be unconditionally positive
Audience is more interactive with the information presented; audiences have a choice in reading what they want to.
This genre required more creativity, but the usage of my research was lim7ited to the information that the business would find useful in marketing. Despite the audiences' activity with this genre, the quality of information that they were able to access was significantly worse than what the research paper or even the newspaper presented.
Bibliography
"Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 24 Oct. 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090210110043.htm>.
Levitin, Daniel J.. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York: Plume, 2007.
"Music and the Brain." The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla CA.. 17 Sep. 2009
The Musical Brain. "Neuroscience for Kids." UW Faculty Web Server. 17 Sep. 2009"
Music on Brain." Harvard Gazette. 30 Aug. 2009.
Storr. "Music and the Brain." "Brain & Mind" Magazine. 3 Sep. 2009.
Epilogue
From this project I was able to learn and observe numerous things. First, the obvious, I learned a lot about the effects in music-body interactions. Many of the researches revealed a world of knowledge completely foreign to me. I felt excited at the vast pool of knowledge available. At the same time, I saw how other classmates would be going through the same process, only with different topics; the world was bigger than I thought it was. My perspective on this topic changed as I saw that this was a pretty serious thing out in the world. Until now, I knew of its existence, but didn't think that there would be solid evidence of this phenomenon.
The usage of multiple genres in this project also made it unique. Apart from the fact that the usage of multiple genres was entertaining, I noticed a phenomenon. As my genres changed from a research paper to an article to a web page, I found that the quality of information being used decreased visibly. Each genre with different audiences, I found myself trying to satisfy each of the groups by carefully picking the parts of the research I needed. For example, I didn't use research papers that went against my idea that music is beneficial to the body for my webpage.
Although there was a lot of work involved, this project was meaningful in that I saw the importance of audience and tone in real-life writing. I was glad that I chose the particular genres I did because they helped me develop the idea that the audience plays a big role in determining the quality of research being done by the writers.
I hope that people have learned of the existence of this particular field of psychology. Other than that, I hope they had fun reading my project.
Preface
While reading the book This is Your Brain on Music by Daniel J. Levitin, I became interested in the effect music has on us. While Levintin writes mostly about the neurological aspects of music, I was more intersted in the impact music has on the rest of our bodies. When I began researching, I had no idea how much research on this topic was already done. There was a whole field of science dedicated to this subject alone. I actually didn't expect music to have very much effect on our bodies but I was surprised by the physical power of music.
Genre 1 Introduction
The first genre was a research paper. This genre features several important characteristics;- Formal language; for example, almost never uses first-person point of view
- Intended for a scholarly audience.
- Supposed to reflect the best objective knowledge of the subject available.
- Should have a thesis that unifies the material.
I learned the most from working on this genre. Reading research papers would actually be the best way for an interested person to get information on the physical effects of music. The genre enabled me to present most of my research on this topic.Research Paper
Music. It is a vague term for almost anything that we could hear with our auditory system. Our lives are so heavily integrated with music that it would be even wrong to say that a big part of our lives consists of music. We are exposed to music even before birth and continue our lives with music until death. Our life is music.
There are a lot of different types of research going on: how different types of music cause different reactions, region of the brain that functions in music recognition and reaction, hormones that are produced as a result of musical interaction, effect of music in the mental state, so on so forth. From all this research, one thing is certain: that music has clear influence physical reactions in the body. But is it good or bad for the body? The answer is that there are both good and harmful effects of body-music interaction.
It has been found that certain types of music (especially baroque-classic) is capable of calming blood pulse, brain waves, breathing rate, and lowering blood pressure (Storr). In addition, music is capable of increasing memory retainment and the electrical resistance of our skin (Storr). This results from a lower/higher release in certain types of stress hormones. One reason they turn on music in hospitals is to take advantage of this phenomenon to calm their clients. It is even used to treat patients in major hospitals to reduce the doses of medicine that lower blood pressure. Other practical usages of music include its usage in treating multiple disorders like the Alzheimer’s disease. Music had a visible impact on patients by calming the severity of the disease in patients. Musical treatment and memory enhancement has a great potential of becoming even more widely used within the near future for its presumably innocuous nature and its non-reliance on physically impacting chemicals and medicines (Harvard Gazette).
Although most researches focus about the “beneficial” effects of music, there are some scientists that state that certain types of music is capable of harming the body. According to one research, stopped anapestic beats, which are often used in hard rock, is capable of weakening the body and mind. The body’s muscles are said to deteriorate after a long exposure to these special types of beats. Behavioral problems amongst teens are also credited to the hard rock beats (Storr). While this research doesn't seem as well supported as previous ones on the beneficial effects, it is clear to us that it is necessary for scientists to start researching for the negative effects of music as well.
Like mentioned above, music is said to be able to influence people in their development. There has been researches that stated that children develop quicker and mature at an early age by interacting with certain types of music. To support this statement, there are mothers that listen to classical music during their pregnancy in hopes of developing their children while they are in the stomach. Details concerning why this may be so is unknown yet, but we are getting clearer to an answer as more and more researches prove this relationship to be true (The Neurosciences Institute). The developmental aspect of music is hard to experiment with, considering the fact that development occurs during a longer period of time compared to most of the other experiments. But these few experiments that try to show us that there is a relationship is definitely a good sign of progress.
After considering the effect of “listening” to music, we cannot ignore the effect music has on the musicians. In an experiment conducted with children, given piano lessons, computer lessons, and singing lessons, the researchers found surprisingly that none of the other lessons than piano lessons actually improved a child’s spatial-temporal test scores. By developing body-brain interaction, and by developing a keener sense of sound, musicians develop certain parts of their brain. This, although not confirmed through multiple researches, is regarded amongst many researchers to be true. Therefore, playing music, even has a part in the music to body influcence (The Musical Brain).
Despite the degree of importance music has on our lives, intense research on the effects of the different types of music on our body have started fairly recently (People had interests in this relationship since the time of Plato though). But this doesn't mean that there is no progress; we have found out a great deal of new facts about the body-music interactions and are finding out new things about it even now. Music will prove to be a practical topic to research in the long run.
Bibliography
Levitin, Daniel J.. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York: Plume, 2007."Music and the Brain." The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla CA.. 17 Sep. 2009
The Musical Brain. "Neuroscience for Kids." UW Faculty Web Server. 17 Sep. 2009"
Music on Brain." Harvard Gazette. 30 Aug. 2009.
Storr. "Music and the Brain." "Brain & Mind" Magazine. 3 Sep. 2009.
Genre 2 Introduction
The second genre was an article. The genre features;- Shorter than research paper;
- Most paragraphs consist of a single sentence
- Less formal language, but not concise.
- Targets a large audience; many people should be able to understand it without much effort
Although I couldn't present the research as deeply as I did with genre one, someone could still learn a lot about this topic through this genre in a shorter amount of time.Article
Researchers: Music Could be Bad for You
In the study, 101 individuals at high risk of developing dementia were told to play music and solve 3-dimensional puzzles. Dementia was shown to develop later in the individuals who did these brain stimulating activities than in those who didn’t exercise their brains as much.
However, individuals whose dementia was delayed were seen to deteriorate much more rapidly than individuals who didn’t exercise their brains as much and whose symptoms appeared earlier.
In a particularly interesting recent case, a minster has been observed suffering seizures focused on his lower left face, but only when he played music on an organ.
His seizures were seen to respond less vigorously when listening to, reading, or even silently imagining playing or singing.
A Specific Genre of Music?
The detrimental effects of certain music have long been known to researchers.
Stopped anapestic beats (short-short-long beats followed by a pause) are said to interfere with brain wave patterns causing mental stress.
Stopped anapestic beats feature prominently in rock and hip-hop music. Anyone who can remember the guitar part of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir” is familiar with this pattern.
While classical music might benefit the body by corresponding to the body’s natural rhythm, it is said that music containing these stopped anapestic beats, is capable of making the body weaker by creating rhythms that are directly opposite to cardiac and arterial rhythms.
Combining the cases with the already known research results about the stopped anapestic beats, music may not be the innocuous, therapeutic pleasure we have thought it to be previously.
Maybe our parents and grandparents were right to warn about the dangers of rock music.
Maybe It Depends on Taste
A related study reported in the March edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, involved stroke patients who suffered from impaired vision.
These patients suffered from visual neglect, a condition in which they are incapable of recognizing objects within the part of their field of vision that is affected by the damaged area of their brain.
The study, conducted at Imperial College London, the University of Birmingham and other institutions, showed these patients to have a much higher rate of visual recognition while listening to music of their preference.
On the other hand, music that they did not enjoy had no more effect than silence with these patients.
Researchers presume that the positive emotion resulting from the pleasant music is capable of making more efficient signaling of the brain.
The study suggests that musical preference may be essential in many of the beneficial affects attributed to music, adding a new dimension for future researchers to consider.
“Our findings suggest that we should think more carefully about the individual emotional factors in patients,” said Dr. Soto, the lead author of the study.
So perhaps rock and hip hop are only bad for our parents and grandparents because they don’t like it? As always, scientists only agree that more research is needed.
Bibliography
"Einstein: Albert Einstein College of Medicine." Einstein: Albert Einstein College of Medicine. 24 Oct. 2009"Listening To Pleasant Music Could Help Restore Vision In Stroke Patients, Suggests Study." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 24 Oct. 2009.
"Music And Health: Is There A Connection? « Health In Motion." Health In Motion. 24 Oct. 2009
Storr. "Music and the Brain." "Brain & Mind" Magazine - WWW Home Page. 24 Oct. 2009.
Music Technology. Photograph. Music Technology. Web. 25 Oct. 2009. <http://academic.sun.ac.za/musteg/images/mixer_en_cans.jpg>.
Genre 3 Introduction
The first two genres presented the topic as if the author was uninterested in the audience. But this time, the creator of the webpage attempts to sell products/services to the audience.- Clear, attractive writing
- Must hold attention of audience
- Everything must be unconditionally positive
- Audience is more interactive with the information presented; audiences have a choice in reading what they want to.
This genre required more creativity, but the usage of my research was lim7ited to the information that the business would find useful in marketing. Despite the audiences' activity with this genre, the quality of information that they were able to access was significantly worse than what the research paper or even the newspaper presented.Bibliography
"Adolescents Involved With Music Do Better In School." Science Daily: News & Articles in Science, Health, Environment & Technology. 24 Oct. 2009 <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090210110043.htm>.
Levitin, Daniel J.. This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. New York: Plume, 2007.
"Music and the Brain." The Neurosciences Institute, La Jolla CA.. 17 Sep. 2009
The Musical Brain. "Neuroscience for Kids." UW Faculty Web Server. 17 Sep. 2009"
Music on Brain." Harvard Gazette. 30 Aug. 2009.
Storr. "Music and the Brain." "Brain & Mind" Magazine. 3 Sep. 2009.
Epilogue
From this project I was able to learn and observe numerous things. First, the obvious, I learned a lot about the effects in music-body interactions. Many of the researches revealed a world of knowledge completely foreign to me. I felt excited at the vast pool of knowledge available. At the same time, I saw how other classmates would be going through the same process, only with different topics; the world was bigger than I thought it was. My perspective on this topic changed as I saw that this was a pretty serious thing out in the world. Until now, I knew of its existence, but didn't think that there would be solid evidence of this phenomenon.
The usage of multiple genres in this project also made it unique. Apart from the fact that the usage of multiple genres was entertaining, I noticed a phenomenon. As my genres changed from a research paper to an article to a web page, I found that the quality of information being used decreased visibly. Each genre with different audiences, I found myself trying to satisfy each of the groups by carefully picking the parts of the research I needed. For example, I didn't use research papers that went against my idea that music is beneficial to the body for my webpage.
Although there was a lot of work involved, this project was meaningful in that I saw the importance of audience and tone in real-life writing. I was glad that I chose the particular genres I did because they helped me develop the idea that the audience plays a big role in determining the quality of research being done by the writers.
I hope that people have learned of the existence of this particular field of psychology. Other than that, I hope they had fun reading my project.